Paul Lambert has confirmed that Christian Benteke will be out for 4-6 weeks due to hip injury sustained against Norwich.

“You are never quite sure until you hear from the professor [doctor], but thankfully it is not too serious,” said manager Paul Lambert.

“He is feeling a lot better.” – Paul Lambert

This means Benteke will miss games against Hull, Manchester City, Everton and Tottenham while also missing World Cup qualifiers for Belgium. Benteke has scored 5 goals in 6 games for Aston Villa and will be missed, no other player has scored more than 1 goal for Aston Villa so far this season.

Yesterday’s game taught us a little bit about our other forwards, Kozak, Helenius and Bowery. Out of the three, it’s too soon to call a clear candidate to ‘replace’ Benteke. But I think Helenius has great potential, same as Kozak, but he needs much more service whilst Helenius can create more on his own.

But I do wish Benteke a speedy recovery and I hope this injury won’t affect his future performance’s or hinder his career in the future.

I doubt it somehow and forget first game of season it was a fluke and ref was on our side for once plus they had a couple of decent players out and ozil hadn’t arrived. There’s no way on the planet we would beat them at emirates now we just caught them cold

We didn’t outplay Chelsea and arsenal and we lost both games anyway. Arsenal hammered us at times and we rode our luck as they could of been 3 up before we got first goal. But yes a good result but we wouldn’t beat them at emirates now

Of course we wouldn’t, they have Ozil now. He’d open us up like he’s done everyone else this season since he joined Arsenal. We were very fortunate to play them before they signed him.

We were better than Chelsea and most Chelsea fans admitted that during the game. We were terrible against Pool in the first half but should have won it in the 2nd and any Pool fan you talk to would admit that. We haven’t had luck (because it doesn’t exist) this season. Now if we drew/beat Newcastle the way we played, you might, might have an argument for this “luck” trash.

Problem is ur talking about the performance there are no positives from a good performance but there is in the result. For example Norwich we played shit and won and that’s good against Chelsea we played well in second half but lost which is bad. We will constantly be stuck with the unlucky loser tag if we are not careful like the minnows in the fa cup

Of course you can. See we can play well, it’s proven. And if the refs were ever correct, we’d have gotten points off Chelsea and gotten a goal against Spurs which ties the game and they no longer have the confidence or 11 men. We have City, Hull, Spurs and Everton, and obviously the only “should” win is Hull away, the rest are at home and possible for points, but taking those good performances into after the Everton game, we have 6 winnable games and 4 of those 6 are away. Make any of those good performances, and Villa win.

why does everyone believe I think everything is great at villa just because I try not to go ott and slag the club off at every opportunity?
villa get more respect from bluenoses than it does on this site at times.

Well we bought Kozak for this exact reason so now he gets his chance. Helenius deserves a start too, no point persisting with the dross that is letting is down.
We are hoofing it far too much atm, if this was Mcleish in charge he’d be getting crucified, but the lambert fans won’t dare criticise their hero.

Which Lambert fans are refraining from criticising the long balls? I’ve been banging on about them for a very long time (we started off so well last season actually trying to pass the ball around, and it’s something Steer is better at than Guzan). But then I just want Lambert to have a chance to show what he can do, and after the massive improvements in the second half of last season (when Vlaar came back) we need to give him more time this season.

What you seem to be mixing up are fans who are being realistic and dare I say it rational, and giving it more than just a few matches, and short sighted firebrands who want to slag off the club, owner, manager, team and fans who show even a glimmer of positivity or optimism.

Lerner stumped up for Bent when we needed him, and has provided money for new players and higher wages where necessary. Whether he’s in it for the money or whatever the club needs to be profitable and the more successful it is, the more money (or ability to make money) comes in. Lerner also sacked McLeish and Lambert is surely aware of how precarious his situation can become. It’s in no one’s interests for the club to do badly, or flirt with relegation.

Another thing, why are some people knocking Lambert’s post-match interviews and comments? What do people want to hear? How do you motivate a team, does it involve telling them how shit they are and encouraging them with boos? Is that how it works where people here work, do you go in and get told you’re shit all the time and that makes you more productive?

Problem is there isn’t a noticeable improvement. Last Xmas we were being thumped 4-0 at home by Spurs, 9 months on the same is happening. Lambert’s signings outside of Benteke are looking pretty poor/ unprepared for the PL and the football is regressing towards long ball, the very tactic that saw Mcleish vilified.
And regarding Lambert’s interviews, when he starts saying this player was excellent, that player was excellent. when we’ve just been thrashed at home its going to piss people off. Sometimes the less said the better.

Yes, nine months ago all we had of a first team was being thumped by Spurs. The other night it was essentially a b-team, complete with people starting for the first time and not necessarily in their usual positions and being picked apart by a vastly more expensive squad, all in a cup game that looked more like Lambert was trying out some new players.. Not a terribly good comparison. We beat Arsenal, we should have beaten or at least drawn with Chelsea, we kept a clean sheet and beat Norwich. The Liverpool first half was appalling, as was most of the Newcastle match. We still have a developing team.

yep, as I said for kozack bentekes injury is a god send as he will get his chance and some so he needs to step up. and id agree hellenius should get a start just to change it up abit maybe playing behind a front 2.
there is way too much hoofing going on, ive been very disappointed in this since the start of the season, I thought closed season would have seen us come up with something a bit more creative, I understand we have the big target men up front and that’s our strength in attack but there has to be a plan B doesn’t there? same as teams who play tippy tappy on the floor football need to occasionally change it up and play the ugly game and at least have an idea how to play the occasional long ball.
also our passing game needs to improve drastically, well not even the passing game just basic passing, far too many passes are going astray often under no pressure at all, point of fact spurs 3rd goal the other night was a direct result of a sloppy pass by albrighton I think, this needs to stop its just basic football.

well we play using lightning fast counter attacking so I guess lambert is just using our strengths as best he can, the sad fact is we have no hold up players who can pick out a pass and with only 3 across the middle no support any player trying to hold up will find themselves dispossessed very quickly, if we had a CM play maker decent enough im sure he would employ other tatics.
everyone was calling for wingers and a 4-4-2 and we used that the other night, it didn’t work out so good did it. for me people said albrighton had a good game and he did find some good space but failed to deliver proving for me with the best will in the world he’s just not quite good enough, I wish I could say otherwise I really do.
we are aiming for improvement this season and game on game we are 3 pts better off and +10 goals on the same fixtures last season, a mid table finish is not beyond us by any means, its early days guys.

We’re also 2 points better off than our first 5 games last season, much easier start last season and if going off last season, we’ll only win 2 of the next 10 games. We also conceded 9 in our first 5 games, and scored 5, unlike 6 and 6 this season with big losses to Everton and Southampton.

It’s far from impossible. We could have lost all 5 games, could have have drawn Norwich or Arsenal. Could have gotten hammered. But no, that didn’t happen. So we finish 12th then… Isn’t that where most expected us to finish and claimed would be happy as that’s quite an upgrade as it’s far more comfortable?

A team like villa should be finishing in the top 8 at the very least. Historically we have always finished above the likes WBA Southampton Swansea etc these teams should not be finishing above us period!

Historically, we should be. But then history means very little to this team right now. Historically, we’re much bigger and more successful than Chelsea and Spurs as well. But then again, things change. Historically, Liverpool used to be the most successful club in England by far. Historically Leeds and Newcastle used to “challenge” for the title.

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